[busterarm]

I have a very similar background to you but well on the other side of 30. I grew up around abject poverty, crime, drugs and watched my neighborhood wither and die from them. Living through that didn't inoculate me from making some of those mistakes myself. I struggled and worked like a dog for almost 15 years barely making it before I landed where I am. I've been through hell -- seen misery -- seen death.

Frequently, in this industry, I am told that my whiteness and maleness puts me in the same socio-economic background as others that are white and male. A lot of assumptions get made about me based on how I look. I don't even make nearly as much as my peers, because why should I get a higher offer when I have no degree, right?

It's hard to hear some of the things that get suggested to me by others that are about me. I worry about a deeply simmering anger that I feel about some of it. It's hard not to tell people, whom I know came from an extremely privileged background, about what real misery and suffering and strife in the world is like. I know they cannot handle it. I know it would sink their ship.

And I would quickly be out of a job.

My advice to others of the wrong gender and skin color in this industry who grew up poor: don't tell anyone. Your longevity in this industry depends on your peers thinking that you are just like them. You would be right to see the irony in that.